Minecraft’s Latest Update Adds VR Swimming On Rift, Gear And Windows

Minecraft may sadly be missing from the list of apps on Oculus’ new Go headset, but the game is still going strong on Rift, Gear and Windows VR headsets with a fresh update this month.

Late last week developer Mojang launched the Aquatic Update for the smash hit game across both traditional platforms and supported VR headsets. This first of a two-part update adds a major new feature to the game: swimming. We’ve always been able to jump into water and dig around, but with the Aquatic update players will find entire oceans to explore across nine biomes (frozen, deep frozen, cold, deep cold, lukewarm, deep lukewarm, normal, deep normal, warm). Water itself has been redesigned to be clearer so you can actually see where you’re going.

It’s hard to believe that Minecraft has been around this long without introducing oceans but the sheer size of this update makes it seem like it’s been worth the wait. Players will be able to hunt for treasure chests in shipwrecks, wield a trident and unlock eight new achievements. On land, meanwhile, you’ll be able to climb into icebergs and you can also swim with dolphins to get a speed boost.

The second part of this update will be coming soon, according to Mojang, and will add a handful of new features that weren’t squeezed into this release.

It’s great to see Minecraft still getting VR updates, even if we have no idea how many people are actually playing it with a headset. The VR version offers the complete experience with cross-play so that you can join friends on Xbox One and more. Now, if we could just get that Oculus Go port sorted out.